Jason Torpy of MAAF reports that Southern Baptists are recalling their military chaplains because (gasp) they have to work around gay people and in a military that's okay with gay people. (I've gotten some clarification on this point, and I described this poorly. Apologies.)

Southern Baptists are advising chaplains not to perform services with anyone who "practices or affirms a homosexual lifestyle."

Steven Pinker gets the Richard Dawkins Award at the Atheist Alliance of America convention, and here Dawkins sings his praises.

Indonesian Muslim clerics want the Miss World pageant to be held in the country canceled, and the Islamic Defenders Front vows to stop it no matter what.

There exists a federally-funded program that compensates folks who may have had problems related to vaccinations, which does happen sometimes. But of course, this means that vaccines cause autism. Wait.

Herb Silverman: Maybe it wouldn't hurt for both believers and nonbelievers alike to check our arrogance.

Pop star Rihanna (I am old so I don't really know who that is) apparently pays someone to watch for UFOs. And they say there's an unemployment crisis.

Ben Radford notes early alchemists were looking to discover the "philosopher's stone," or as American alchemists called it, the "sorcerer's stone." (I'm kidding.)

Religion scholar Raphael Lataster alerts us to a new book of his just made available on several ebook formats: there was no Jesus, there is no God: A Scholarly Examination of the Scientific, Historical, and Philosophical Evidence & Arguments for Monotheism.

Quote of the Day

Emily Willingham, in a comment on her own blog, responds to another commenter who pulls out the "scientism" canard:

Science is not a belief system. It is the study the natural world. If we’re going to explain phenomena with any kind of evidence base, that evidence base will come from science, the study of the natural world. That’s not dogma. It’s just rational. You can try to distill it to dogma or claim that people who ground arguments in reality and scientific evidence are being religious in their way, but that doesn’t change the fundamental rationality of the statement. It’s not authoritarian to be rational, and it’s not a belief system to rely on evidence. Belief inherently requires a lack of evidence, and calling it “scientism” doesn’t make it a belief system but certainly is redolent of bitter grapes from those who ascribe to less supportable ways of describing the world.

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Linking to a story or webpage does not imply endorsement by Paul or CFI. Not every use of quotation marks is ironic or sarcastic, but it often is.

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Paul Fidalgo has been communications director of the Center for Inquiry since 2012. He holds a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University, and has worked previously for FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy and the Secular Coalition for America. Paul is also an actor and musician whose work includes five years performing with the American Shakespeare Center. He lives in Maine with his wife and kids. His blog at the Patheos network is iMortal, and he tweets at @paulfidalgo.